The Sportsmanship of Sports

Imagine if there is no sportsmanship in sports. Competition will be messy because of unfair scores or results. People can bribe to win a game, and many more can happen. But what is the true meaning of sportsmanship? Have you ever wondered what sportsmanship is and why it is important? Not only athletes, coaches, but also judges must have sportsmanship by following the rules and maintaining fairness.

Brian G. Phelps, the director of athletics, stated that sportsmanship is not only about knowing and being responsible for playing fair but also maintaining ethics and integrity, and kindness against rivals. Sportsmanship is also one of big parts in sports because the aspects of sportsmanship can make sports games become easier, healthier, and more “positive” competition. As promoted in the Olympic Oaths, it means that sportsmanship is really important for us to put in on every game or competition.  

“In the name of all athletes, judges, coaches & officials, we promise to take part in this Olympic game, respecting and abiding by the rules and in the spirit of fair play. We all commit ourselves to sport without doping and cheating. We do this, for the glory of sport, for the honor of our teams and in respect for the fundamental principles of olympism” (Wikipedia) 

There are a lot of aspects in sportsmanship. Following the rules is one of the aspects from sportsmanship. Athletes, coaches, and judges must apply this point in every competition. To illustrate, As the Fédération internationale de natation (FINA) - Constitution wrote, “to comply with the FINA RULES at all times “ (C 8.2.2) it means that aquatic’s athletes, coaches, and judges have to follow all the rules that FINA wrote in the book.  For example, athletes are strictly prohibited from drugs or doping use. An athlete who gets caught from abuse doping will get punishment such as disqualification, medal confiscation and even they can get banned from competition for up to 4 years. To illustrate, American sprinter Maria Jones tested positive of performance-enhancing drugs on the 2000 Summer Olympic in Sydney. She had to give back three gold and two bronze medals she got from those games and she had also got banned for 2 years (livescience.com) . Another example is from China’s famous swimmer, Sun Yang. Lately he got prohibited from competing for up to 4 years because of doping use and got proven to have destroyed the evidence (espn.com)

 Not only athletes, but also coaches have to follow the rules. In addition, coaches have to prohibit their athletes from doping’s use. Another example is, if coaches follow the rules, they can help to make a positive environment in the competition. For example, in soccer, coaches are not allowed to tell the referee what they should do and go talk to the referee inside the court (cdn1.sportngin.com). Furthermore, judges also have to follow the rules. Moreover, the judges of artistic swimming are in charge to follow all the rules that have been written in the FINA ’s judges’ book and it is really important for the judges to keep it up. For instance, judges must not receive any bribery and firmly reject it. As an illustration, Canada could not win a gold medal on the 2002 Winter Olympic in Salt Lake City only because the judges got bribed. Russia won gold medal that time. Even after Russia fell in the arena (which mean they got lower score) and after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) reveal the trick, Russia were still able to keep their medal even though at the end they had to share the gold medal with Canada. (bleacherres sport)

The other most important part of sportsmanship is maintaining fairness. Athletes deserve to have a fair game, so coaches, judges, and athletes themselves can make it happen if they work together to make a good fairness between them. For instance, athletes and coaches can maintain the fairness by respecting each other, having great attitude behavior between rivals, and maintaining solidarity and friendship among athletes and coaches. As an Illustration, Sueo Oe and  Shuhei Nishida, Japanese pole vault athletes finish the same height of 4.25m at the  1936 Olympic Games in Berlin behind Earle Meadows. Ultimately Oe ended up got a bronze medal and the silver medal went to Nishida because he rated of having more effort than Oe. The story had not finished there. When they both went back to Japan, they split their medal into two pieces and combined the silver and bronze medal. It means that Oe and Nishida both have mixed medals. They really uphold the point of fairness and the medal named as “Medals of friendship” (Olympic.com) . Moreover, judges are also responsible for maintaining the fairness. Specifically in artistic swimming, judges must judge by the athlete’s performance, not from who the athlete is, and where the athlete is from or what region he/she represents. The judges must be  able to be impartial to one party. If judges cannot judge fairly, athletes will not get their real results and have a fair game only because the judges take sides of someone. As mentioned in the last sentence of the Judges / official’s Olympic Oath, “Abiding by the rules which mean govern them in the true spirit of sportsmanship” means that necessarily, judges must treat all participants fairly.

It is really important for us as an athletes, coaches, and judges to follow all the rules and keep up the fairness. Therefore, let’s implement these matters together in every game or competitions so we can help the world of sports become better.

- written by Nabilah Umarella, September 2021 -